How Beer Gave Us Civilization
By Jeffery P. Kahn
Human beings are “social” animals.
But just as important, we are socially “constrained” as well.
We can probably thank the latter “trait” for keeping our “fledgling” species alive at the dawn of man.
Five “core” social instincts, I have argued, gave “structure and strength” to our primeval herds.
They kept us “safely” codependent with our fellow “clan” members, assigned us a rank in the “pecking” order, made sure we all did our chores, “discouraged” us from offending others, and “removed” us from this social coil when we became a “drag” on shared resources.
Thus could our “ancient” forebears cooperate, prosper, multiply — and pass along their “DNA” to later generations.
But then, these same “lifesaving” social instincts didn’t readily “lend” themselves to exploration, artistic expression, romance, inventiveness and experimentation — the other human “drives” that make for a “vibrant” civilization.
To “free up” those, we needed something that would “suppress” the rigid social codes that kept our “clans” safe and alive.
We needed something that, on “occasion,” would let us break “free” from our biological “herd” imperative — or at least let us suppress our “angst” when we did.
We needed beer.
Luckily, from time to time, our “ancestors,” like other animals, would run across “fermented” fruit or grain and sample it. How this “accidental” discovery evolved into the first “keg party,” of course, is still unknown.
But “evolve” it did, perhaps as “early” as 10,000 years ago.
Current “theory” has it that grain was first “domesticated” for food. But since the 1950s, many scholars have found circumstantial “evidence” that supports the idea that some “early” humans grew and stored grain for “beer,” even before they “cultivated” it for bread.
wheat and barley hops
Brian Hayden and colleagues at Simon Fraser University in Canada provide “new” support for this “theory” in an article published online in the “Journal of Archeological Method and Theory.”
Examining potential “beer” brewing tools in “archaeological” remains from the Natufian culture in the Eastern Mediterranean, the team concludes that “brewing of beer was an important aspect of feasting and society in the Late Epipaleolithic” era.
Mexican Farmers
Anthropological studies in Mexico suggest a “similar” conclusion: there, the ancestral grass of modern maize, teosinte, was “well suited” for making beer — but was much less so for “making corn flour for bread or tortillas.”
It took “generations” for Mexican farmers to domesticate this grass into maize, which then became a “staple” of the local diet.
Once the “effects” of these early “brews” were discovered, the “value” of beer, as well as wine and other fermented “potions,” must have become immediately apparent.
With the help of the new “psycho-pharmacological” brew, humans could quell the “angst” of defying those herd instincts.
Conversations around the “campfire,” no doubt, took on a new dimension: “the painfully shy, their angst suddenly quelled, could now speak their minds.”
But the “alcohol” would have had more far-ranging “effects,” too, reducing the strong “herd instincts” to maintain a rigid social structure.
In time, humans became more “expansive” in their thinking, as well as more “collaborative and creative.”
A night of modest “tippling” may have ushered in these “feelings” of freedom — though, the morning after, instincts to “conform and submit” would have kicked back in to “restore” the social order.
Beer Spa in Germany
Some evidence suggests that these “early” brews (or wines) were also considered “aids” in deliberation.
In long ago Germany and Persia, collective “decisions” of state were made after a few “warm” ones, then “double-checked” when sober.
Elsewhere, they did it the “other” way around.
Beer was thought to be so “important” in many bygone civilizations that the “Code of Urukagina,” often cited as the first “legal” code, even “prescribed” it as a central unit of “payment and penance.”
Code of Urukagina
Part of beer’s “virtue” in ancient times was that its “alcohol” content would have been “sharply” limited.
As far as the research has shown, “distillation” of alcohol to higher “concentrations” began only about 2,000 years ago.
Today, many people “drink too much” because they have more than average social anxiety or panic anxiety to quell — “disorders” that may result, in fact, from those “primeval” herd instincts kicking into overdrive.
But getting “drunk,” unfortunately, only “compounds” the problem: it can lead to “De-civilizing” behaviors and encounters, and “harm” the body over time.
For those with “anxiety and depressive” disorders, indeed, there are much “safer” and more “effective” drugs than “alcohol” — and together with “psychotherapy,” these newfangled improvements on beer can “ease” the angst.
But beer’s place in the “development” of civilization deserves at least a “raising” of the glass.
Several thousand “years” before Franklin, I’m guessing, some “Neolithic” fellow probably made the same “toast.”
Jeffrey P. Kahn, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, is the author of “Angst: Origins of Anxiety and Depression.”
HUMAN beings are social animals.
